Overleveling

A lot of ppl here raised that argument agaisnt the /xp off command stating as you say that it would become sort of a PvP strategy to avoid getting to level 50. I read your opinion on this and still fail to see the point (all the "maximize gear" tactic you mentioned could be done by a level 50 as well). Not to flame you or anything like that. Just trying to understand the argument. What would be the advantage an eternal level 49 could possibly have over a level 50 in PvP?

You have a good point. Nevertheless, unlike real life you can always mold reality rules to give ppl more freedom of choice. Someone here has posed an interesting idea. A /off_XP command or even a /slow_down_XP command would solve it all. This solution is not unlike those we find in several single player RPGs in the form of player made mods.

Regarding your strategy to overcome this. I find it a great solution. It would never work for me though. For me the only reason to roll an alt is to experience the story in a diferent pace and make diferent choices all the way. I usually change the order of the quests and make diferent choices to see what happens. Apart from diferent outcomes we also have diferent loot and diferent fighting challenges for diferent specs within the same quest content.

Of course, this gameplay style takes too long to get to 50 and it would make me stay on the game for about 1-2 years with several low/mid level characters. But it is a self imposed permanence. Unlike some MMOs in the past where you were forced to stay 1-2 years to get max level (perhaps as a deliberate strategy to retain audience). Isn't it a good thing? Is it possible to any MMO to have a healthy enviromment for long terms if everyone is at max level? How further the developers can push level caps and introduce new max level content till the audience gets burned out? All MMOs need low/mid level population to survive (at least the ones that use leveling as a ruleset).

The advantage is not over level 50's. The advantage comes against other sub-50's in the 10-49 bracket. Most of those players are not high enough level to have access to expertise on their weapons and gear. So right now, there is very little advantage as only 48-49's can use expertise gear and they level out of the bracket quickly (so their overall effect of being overpowered compared to 10's and 20's is limited by time constraints). If however they could stay at 49 permanently, they would also collect commendations to buy more expertise gear and put it on all their gear instead of just their weapons. They would become more and more overpowered and would never scale out of the tier. This would destroy the lower tier of PvP as these few people would totally dominate the rest of the people trying to have a balanced match.

I don't PvP, but then wouldn't the solution be to have an xp off button disabled after you level 46 if only 48-49's can use the expertise gear?

Perhaps we just might have the /experience_off command ?

So you can stop getting xp when you want and the other people who don't care being "overlevel" continue business as usual. No harms done and a simple and nice addition to immerssion for those who likes it like that.

An easy fix for that is making 49 its own bracket. Or even 40-49. Keep all the lower levels separated.

An easier fix would be to leave it the way it is and not allow anyone to turn off XP.